Tokyo Web reports the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to issue a notification to prefectures in mid-September to ease regulations beyond rational guidance regarding industrial cannabis, which is being cultivated. At the same time, from October, a forum for three-party discussions between the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, prefectures, and growers will be set up. Domestic cannabis growers have obtained licenses from prefectures to cultivate varieties with extremely low content of the hallucinogenic component “tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)” and produce fibers for rituals. However, strict regulations regarding the installation of surveillance cameras and fences in fields and patrols have become a problem. Toru Tanaka, chief of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Surveillance and Narcotics Countermeasures Division, said, “In the past, there were cases where surveillance camera data was stored for five years. There are also regulations that clearly overkill. “The policy for deregulation was announced on the 23rd when representatives of growers in Tochigi, Mie, Gifu Prefecture, and Hokkaido visited Mr. Mitsuaki Kamada, Director of the Pharmaceutical and Living Hygiene Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Farmers have submitted a request to distinguish cannabis as a drug from industrial cannabis by writing it as “marijuana”.
Sean Hocking, Cannabis Law Report, 08/28/2021 00:06:00